Our Core Values & Beliefs: Christ Centered Relationships 1 Peter 4:8-11 Pastor Daniel Reese

Well, good morning everybody.

If you have your Bibles, we'll be in 1 Peter chapter 4 here in just a little while.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

We are in our third week of looking at our beliefs, looking at our core values.

This is a series that will help remind those of us that have been around for a little while

who we are as a church.

I think that's important to remind ourselves of.

It would also help inform those of you that are newer, that these are the things that

are the foundation of who we are as a church.

I think it's important to remind ourselves of those things occasionally because we want

to stay grounded in our history, but more importantly, we want to stay grounded to what

God has told us through His Word.

This morning we're going to be looking at our core values, the difference between our

beliefs and our core values is that our beliefs are based on what we believe to be true based

on the Bible.

Our core values are a response to those beliefs.

If you remember back to Ephesians when we were going through Ephesians, the first three

chapters Paul told us who God is and what he has done and what he continues to do.

The second half of that book is how we live in light of that information.

Since we believe the Bible to be true and the ultimate authority for our lives, our

values should be rooted in that.

If we claim to love Jesus, but don't act that way with others, then we would just be a bunch

of hypocrites, wouldn't we?

If we believe the Bible is true and then live according to how the world tells us that we

should, then we're not trusting that God's ways are better than our own.

This morning we're going to look at our core value of Christ-centered relationships by

looking at 1 Peter chapter 4.

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

My son, Riker, has been working on his reading.

He's been chomping at the bit to be able to read.

You can come on up here to be able to read our scripture this morning.

I'm going to invite him to read verses 8 through 11 today.

I'd love for you to stand as we honor God's word together.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling, as each has received a gift.

Use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace, whoever speaks one who

speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies

in order and glorified through Jesus.

May God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him be long glory and dominion forever and

ever.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We pray that these words of Peter will seep into our souls this morning.

I thank you for my boy, and I pray God that he will develop a strong desire to love your

word and to love what it says.

We ask all these things in your name.

Amen.

Thanks, bud.

Lee Ayacoka once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make

a winning team.

Lombardi said there's a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals

and have plenty of discipline, but still don't win the game.

Then you come to the third ingredient.

If you're going to play together as a team, you've got to care for one another.

You've got to love each other.

Each player has to be thinking about the next guy.

You've got to do your job well in order that he can do his.

The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other.

Now that's profound, and it's very practical.

Great teams in sports and business and especially in the church are formulated when the members

of the team love each other.

That's why Peter assigned this principle the above all status.

Above all, this is how we are to treat one another.

There's no question that every one of us wants to be loved and to love others, but it's not

enough for others to know that you love them.

You must show that you love others.

This is not a... Love is not an abstract idea.

Love must be manifested.

True love is not something that you feel, it's something that you demonstrate.

That's why you don't just say it, you show it.

Marriages have problems when partners don't know or don't show love to one another.

A husband and a wife may love each other deeply, but are miserable in their marriage because

they don't know how to show love to one another.

You can't raise kids properly without showing them love.

You can't have true, lasting, satisfying friendships if your friends can't tell that you love them.

You can't experience relationships in your community, whatever community that is or

in your church family without showing and receiving love.

For some of you, showing love is not a problem.

For some of you, it's easy to show love.

It comes naturally to you because of your temperament or because of how you were raised.

Others of us have a more difficult time showing love.

You don't feel comfortable showing your love.

You may simply have never learned how to show your love, but whether it comes natural or

not, we need to show love and we need to grow in this area because everybody needs to know

that they are loved.

You especially need to know how to show love if you are a follower of Jesus because Jesus

said all people will know that you are my disciple if you love each other.

The good news is God tells us in His Word.

He tells us in the Bible.

So we're going to look at some scriptures that provide the how, the know-how, the practical

wisdom to following the standard of love that shows what following Christ is all about.

Now we could do an entire sermon series on that passage in John 13.

Our relationships with other believers should look different than others.

The love and care that we have for one another should be a stark difference between how other

people relate to one another.

It is sad to me that Christian marriages fail as often as secular ones.

It is sad to me that churches split because they can't seem to get along.

It's sad to me that the stories that make headlines are when a pastor morally fails as opposed

to a church loving their community in such a way that it completely changes the culture.

So one of our core values here at Cornerstone is Christ-centered relationships and we all

need to rise to that standard.

If you are a part of our church, we need to rise to that standard.

If we are going to be a church that wants our community to know that we follow Jesus,

then we need to be reminded of how we are supposed to treat others.

I believe so many of you do this so well.

So well.

But I believe we could all be better.

All of us could be better.

So whatever your starting point is this morning and how you demonstrate love and how you show

love, may we all strive to put Christ at the center of every relationship that we have.

So let's look at a few ways that we can show love to others.

The first one being the golden rule.

Jesus says in Luke 6.31, treat others the way you want to be treated.

This has been called the golden rule because it is so valuable in how we relate to one

another.

Non-believers call this the golden rule because there is so much wisdom in the words of Jesus.

I don't even know if they understand when they say these things that this is coming

from Jesus.

That Jesus is the one that coined that phrase.

You want others to treat you with love and respect and there is nothing wrong with that.

We want to be loved.

We want to be respected.

Jesus uses something you can readily understand to teach you something that you need to know.

You need to treat others just as you want to be treated.

You want others to listen to you when you talk, right?

We all want that.

You want them to think about your needs.

You want them to take initiative and seeking you out.

You want them to show you love by the things they do for you.

You want their love and forgiveness when you mess up.

We're all guilty of that.

You want understanding.

You want second chances.

Jesus says then, right?

Start doing that for others.

Start listening when they talk.

Be interested in what they're saying.

Don't look away.

Don't be checking your watch.

Don't just be thinking of what you're going to say next, but actually hear what they have

to say.

Listen to what they have to say.

Really focus on what they're saying.

Start taking the initiative and seeking others out.

Start meeting their needs.

Start showing them love by the things that you do for them.

Forgive others.

Be patient with them.

We want patients given to us, but so many of us, at least for me, we struggle with giving

patients to others.

Be kind and understanding even when they aren't acting right.

Even when they're not acting the way you think they should be acting.

We moved here from a small town.

So, I mean, Eldridge is the same way, but you know, like, in a small town, the chances

of you running into somebody you know in the grocery store is very high.

We know this.

Like, if I go to High V down the road, I'm probably going to run into somebody that I

know.

I will never forget walking into the grocery store one random day a few years ago in a

former church member who left our church a few weeks prior in a huff just flat out ignored

me when I acknowledged it, when I said hi to them.

I thought it was immature, but I'm used to people being upset at me.

It's just life, right?

But then we get to the checkout line.

And small town is just like Walmart, right?

You have 14 different checkouts, but only two are open, right?

And so I'm at the checkout line, there are a few people behind me.

And as I'm leaving, as I've checked out and I'm leaving, she starts bashing me and bashing

our church saying that we don't care about people.

Our church doesn't care about people.

Now, the reason she left was because she got migraines and she couldn't handle the noise

in the sanctuary.

I get it.

She would have preferred that we turn the speakers so low that there would be really

no point in even having them on.

But we cater to her.

We set up a room where she could go watch the service.

She could hear the service of whatever volume she wanted to have.

We had this massive TV in there.

We had a couch.

I would have rather been in the service in that room than anywhere else.

But she didn't care.

She didn't want it.

She wanted the volume low.

She didn't care what the rest of the congregation wanted.

She wanted it her way.

And when she didn't get it, she let everyone know that our church didn't care about people.

Do you think all the non-believers that heard that interaction, that heard that exchange

flooded our church the next Sunday?

Why would they want to be a part of that community?

Why would they want to join in when their own life is dysfunctional?

Why would they want to go join in in what seems like a dysfunctional place?

This guideline of Jesus is pretty simple.

It's pretty straightforward.

It's pretty well-known, but it's also pretty easy to overlook because of our human nature.

So we need to be reminded.

Many of us have heard this verse.

These verses read in our wedding.

What the reality is, this verse was written for the church in 1 Corinthians 13.

It says, Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way.

It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Like we think that's a marriage verse.

That's not.

It's a church verse.

This is written for the church.

Think through that list.

Think through that list in 1 Corinthians 13.

And then think about situations in your marriage and your family with fellow church members.

Do you show patience and kindness?

Are you waiting and hoping for something to fail so you can tell them, I told you so.

Do you have endurance and hard times to fight for the relationship?

Jesus says that people will know that you are my disciples by how you love.

Paul gives us the definition of love here in 1 Corinthians 13.

How are those realities lining up with your life?

The next one builds on the first.

We are to treat others the way we want to be treated, but then we need to treat others

the way Jesus treats you.

Jesus says in John 13, just as I have loved you, you should love.

Love one another.

He says again in John 15, I command you to love each other in the same way that I have

loved you.

I mean that's pretty good treatment.

Some have even dubbed this the platinum rule.

The golden rule is how you treat others and you treat others the way you want to be treated.

And one step further is you treat others the way Jesus has treated you.

All you have to do, all you have to do is ask yourself.

How does Christ treat me?

That's how we need to treat others.

Five times the New Testament flatly declares that Jesus gave himself for you.

Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Ephesians 5, 1 Timothy 2, Titus 2.

Let's look at one of those verses, Galatians 2, 20.

I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God.

In other words, what Paul is saying is Christ is now calling the shots in my life.

He's my leader.

I'm going to do how he leads me to do it.

Why would he say that?

He continues, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So he's saying I'm allowing God to call the shots in my life because of what he has done

for me.

That's how much Christ loved you.

He loved you so much that he gave himself for you.

That's how he showed his love for you.

He didn't just talk about loving you.

He proved how much he loved you by giving of himself.

By coming to this earth as a human being, by living and dying for you.

I mean, that's great love.

We can't compare it.

If you ever begin to feel unloved, if you get to the place that you think no one loves

you, look at the cross of Jesus.

He loves you so much that he was willing to die for you.

God is not just a God who talks about love.

He shows you how much he loves you.

And that's what he wants us to do for others.

If you're going to love others the way that God loves you, then you're going to have to

give yourself like Christ gave himself.

That means a lot of times it's going to be inconvenient.

At times it's going to cost you something.

At times it's going to be uncomfortable.

This means the question of what's in it for me never comes out of our mouths.

There's a story about Kiasher.

Her husband and daughter were in Mumbai.

They were doing some mission work with the church when some terrorists came into the

restaurant where they were eating and they killed everybody inside.

Her husband, Alan, and her daughter Naomi were killed in that attack.

Her response left those around her, her family, her friends, thinking that she had absolutely

lost her mind.

She mourned.

She was in shock.

She was angry as any one of us would feel if that happened to us.

But her response was that of Jesus.

Her response was she said, since love is lacking here, compassion is what we need.

She said her commitment was to be the opposite of a terrorist in that she was going to love

like an extremist.

No one would have had a problem if she continued to be angry.

She could have demanded justice and no one would have had an issue with that.

But that's how the world thinks, not how Jesus thinks.

As he was being nailed to the cross, what does he do?

He asks God for God, Father, forgive them.

Forgive them for they don't even know what they're doing.

Are you able to do that today to someone who has wronged you, to someone who has hurt you,

betrayed you, to extend grace and forgiveness as Jesus has shown to you?

It might not feel natural, but it is how we are called to stand out.

The next way we show it to others comes from the words of Paul in Romans 12, that we should

take delight in honoring others.

This is a very practical thing.

It's a very practical thing that you can do to show someone that you love them and appreciate

them, give them recognition, give them attention.

Everybody needs attention.

Everybody needs to be honored from time to time.

Spouses need to honor one another.

Children need to honor their parents.

Even one of the Ten Commandments is top ten, right?

Children will honor your father and your mother.

You need to honor your family, your friends, honor your coworkers, your boss, your employees,

and anyone in your life needs to be honored.

We're going to pause to honor some people right now.

I don't know if you know this, but if there's a lot of feedback in the room, let's say

some frequencies cross and it just creates feedback.

What's your natural instinct?

You're going to turn around and look at them.

I could be an idiot one day and it has happened many times where I just forget to turn my

mind on.

You don't think it's my fault.

You turn back and look at them, right?

If you're out of town and you want to catch our service, where do you go?

You can go to any of our social media platforms and there we are live streaming.

If you're watching right now, hello, right?

We're sitting on the beach in Florida watching us have worship here in Iowa, right?

But what do we hear?

What do we hear when volume is not loud enough?

What happens when whoever is running our pro presenter, our computer back there gets distracted

or there's a computer issue and they don't keep up with the slides?

What happens?

Make sure they're okay back there, right?

Like we all got to turn around and look at them, right?

Like we have so many people that work behind the scenes that I doubt ever get honored.

So I want to do that today.

Can we do that today?

So I'm going to invite them.

Not everybody's here today, but not everybody's here in the service.

But Zach Lowe, is Zach here?

Yeah, Zach's here.

Come here, Zach.

Zach runs our sound.

Zach runs our sound and probably gets more grief than anybody, right?

As a sound man, right?

I'm grateful for you.

Let's honor him.

Who else we got?

Sharon.

Sharon's running the computer.

Come up here, Sharon.

Sharon runs the computer.

She's the one that keeps us on track.

Thanks, Sharon.

If Matthew or Drew or whoever's leading the worship decides to go in another direction

and Sharon doesn't keep up with that, is it Matthew's fault?

No, it's Sharon's fault.

Come on.

Luke, Luke, come here.

Luke runs our sound too.

He's about to leave us.

We don't hold any grudges against that.

But Luke runs our sound too.

Give him a hand.

You're awesome.

Chuck, Chuck's over here.

Chuck comes in on a Thursday, Friday, whatever, to get our computer set up so that you have

words on the screen.

He deals with me who gives him my sermon notes like Saturday night, right?

No complaints, just does it.

Chuck, thank you, buddy.

Michelle, are you standing?

Oh, there she is.

Come on in.

Michelle runs our live stream.

If you're not here and you're watching us online, it's because of her.

If you're watching right now, tell her, man, thanks, Michelle.

Thanks for doing all that.

We're grateful for you.

Jimmy.

Jimmy runs our live stream too.

Brother and sister duo.

Brother and sister duo.

Guess what?

If the sound's bad.

Jimmy, what do you do wrong?

What do you do wrong?

Right?

Right?

If the camera angles, if they don't keep up with people moving around.

It's Jimmy's fault, right?

Jimmy, it's not.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Ah, Louvianne.

Louvianne's running our sound today.

Now, hopefully nothing goes wrong while she's walking up here.

Feedback happens because I'm standing somewhere.

It's Louvianne's fault.

Let's just know that.

Right?

But Louvianne does so much around here.

And I'm so grateful that you serve.

Thank you.

You're awesome.

You're awesome.

But my point in saying all that is they're in the back.

They very rarely get recognition.

We want to honor them.

We want to honor them.

The Bible says we need to take delight in honoring them.

It was my joy to write those cards.

I enjoyed it.

We need to look for opportunities.

Not just those in the back, but anybody that serves, anybody in our life that has been

a blessing to us.

We need to look for opportunities to show others what they mean to us.

How we treat them.

It might be a kind word.

It might be a small gift.

It might be a pat on the back or a compliment.

Little things can make a big difference in the life of someone that you love.

In fact, in Romans 12, Paul challenges us to outdo one another in showing honor.

Now those of you that know me know that I'm competitive, but this sounds like a competition

to me.

We need to outdo one another in showing honor.

If you're going to honor somebody, then I'm going to honor them plus somebody else.

If you give them a card, I'm giving them a card and a gift.

That's how we do it.

There are so many of you that do this so well.

And there's so many others that deserve recognition and honor.

And I've been challenged by you because that does not come easily for me at times.

I never want to take for granted the people that serve this church, that give to this

church, that pray for this church, that pray for me.

Let's outdo one another by giving honor to those that we see doing great things.

That's a Christ-centered relationship.

The last way that we show love to others is to love them by faith.

Show love to others by loving them by faith.

Sometimes you're not going to feel like it, but like so many other areas in your life,

you're going to have to love by faith.

Bill Bright, he's a founder of a crew.

Some of y'all know him.

He said he used to preach a sermon on love that had four points.

God loves you unconditionally.

You are commanded to love others.

That means God, your neighbors, your enemies.

You are incapable of loving others in your own strength.

And the fourth point is you can love others with God's love.

You can love others with God's love.

I mean, that's good biblical coaching right there.

That's a good sermon.

But he said that God showed him something he was still missing from his sermon on love.

He said that God showed him through his word and through experience that he needed to add

a fifth point.

You've got to love by faith.

You've got to show love even when you don't feel love.

That's not being hypocritical.

That's loving by faith.

He tells a story of two gifted attorneys who had great professional animosity, even hatred

for one another.

Even though they were distinguished members of the same law firm, they were constantly

criticizing each other.

They were constantly making life miserable for each other.

One of the men received Christ and some months later he came to bill for counsel.

He says, I have hated and criticized my partner for years.

And he has been equally antagonistic toward me.

But now that I'm a Christian, I don't feel right about continuing our warfare.

What shall I do?

He suggested I, I, I, sorry, lost my spot.

He said, why don't you ask your partner to forgive you and tell him that you love him?

The attorney says, I can never do that.

I can never do that.

That would be hypocritical.

I don't love him.

I don't like him.

How could I tell somebody that I love him if I don't?

Bill explained that God commands his children to love even our enemies and that his supernatural,

unconditional love is an expression of our will which we exercise by faith.

His partner was so surprised and convicted of his own sin that he, he responded to this

amazing confession by asking for forgiveness as well.

Then to his friend's surprise, his partner said, I would like to become a Christian too.

Would you show me what I need to do?

Love breaks through so many things.

If you're going to love by faith, you need to make a faith commitment to him.

John 1 says, he came into his own world.

Jesus came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him.

Yet some people accepted him and put their faith in him so he gave them the right to

be children of God.

Your right to become God's child is tied to placing your faith in Jesus Christ.

If you've never done that before, will you pray that prayer this morning?

Will you call upon his name?

For those of you who are already Christ followers, are you showing love in your life?

Do you need to put your love into action?

Do you need to repent for the times that you've been gossiping?

Do you need to stop giving the silent treatment?

Get to having Christ in the center of all of your relationships.

I said last week there are some things that you're not going to find on Google.

How do I fix this?

You're not going to find it on Google.

We need the Holy Spirit to lead us in how we relate to one another.

We need the Holy Spirit to lead us in how we interact with those around us.

If you think to this past week, and you think about all the interactions that you had with

people, would people know that you are a disciple of Jesus?

Sitting at a ball game, sitting in your office at work, dealing with your children, would

people know that you are a disciple of Jesus?

Our core value is Christ-centered relationship.

We need to be the example to those around us.

People are looking at us.

People are watching us.

They're watching how we treat our spouses.

They're watching how we treat our kids.

They're watching how we treat other church members.

People know that you're my disciple by how you love one another.

We need to love others with the golden rule.

We need to love others with the platinum rule.

We need to show honor to others, and we need to love by faith.

It's Communion Sunday, so one of the things we're remembering is how Jesus gave himself

up for us.

It's a great example.